Wednesday, March 6, 2013

(Sydney, Australia)- There are times when the obvious is not so obvious,
even in sailing. Even for our amazing sailing friends Down Under in
Oz. And that is, how does a "cruising spec" J/122 even feel a need to
compete, for starters. Then, secondly, how does it then go about
deciding to do a race, then crushes the fleet!? Just seems to be one of
those remarkable traits of the J/122-- yes, the obvious, not being so
obvious, indeed a "wolf in sheep's clothing" as so many of its owners
have attested to over the course of time.

Here's a wonderful story of the J/122 MARTA JEAN and the crew who sailed
on her for the Sydney-Newcastle Race recently. "It’s becoming a
recurring story in Australia when a J/owner decides to compete in a
offshore race and puts together some friends, family and a few ring
inn’s at short notice. This particular story is from one of those rings
inn’s and tells how the J/122 MARTA JEAN in complete cruising trim shone
in the recent 70 mile Sydney to Newcastle Race on 16th Feb 2013.

It all started when Steve Rae, the owner of MARTA JEAN, rang me and said
asked whether I was available to do the race. Any way this is how it
went-

We had a conservative start not far from Clark Island in Sydney harbour
dogged by fluky wind, lulls and light airs but we managed to pick the
shifts and by the time we hit the open ocean we had already passed 4 or 5
boats. With the 155 sq meter running spinnaker now pulling we started
to extend even further on the boats passed in the harbour. Keeping close
to the rhumbline and risking the edge of the EAC (Eastern Australian
Current) running from half to over knot against us in places, MARTA JEAN
was moving well with good VMGs so that even the larger competitors
were not catching us. By the time we reached Pittwater over 25 miles
north of Sydney in this great 70 mile dash, MARTA JEAN had already
consolidated a good position in the competitive fleet consisting of
Sydney's top offshore race boats, some 50 footers, First 40s, X 43,
Santa Cruz 50’s, DK 43’ and Cookson 12s to name a few.

By the halfway mark with the large running kite still pulling MARTA JEAN
at over 10 knots at times we were able to work the small variable wind
shifts. A major consideration was to change modes to cover the fleet
behind us, therefore enabling us to consolidate and steadily extend our
lead on some of the competition.

Close to Newcastle the wind shifted to the north a little and we had to
drop the big running kite. By this stage we knew we'd done OK as one of
the Cookson 12s was in hailing distance and they owed us a lot of time.
Turning West to head down Newcastle estuary and again with the large
running kite up, MARTA JEAN surged towards the finish line in her home
port and a great reception from the club as the first Newcastle boat
home! We were very pleased to learn we had won on PHS by 13 minutes and
finished 4th on IRC.

All in all a great days racing with a great bunch of people, thanks to
Steve and his wife Maude for another great race on their superb J/122
MARTA JEAN!" Thanks for the contribution from Ray & Sandra
Entwistle from Sydney.For more J/122 sailboat information.